Pastor Ezekiel Odero of New Life Church has now asked the court to thwart the registrar of societies from revoking his church’s registration.

The Registrar of Societies wrote to Odero last week, asking him to show cause why his registration should not be withdrawn for failing to file his yearly returns.

However, in a lawsuit filed by lawyer Danstan Omari, Odero argues that their efforts to file the returns were unsuccessful since their file was missing at the registrar of societies.

“Despite the church’s ceaseless attempts communicated vide his letter dated April 11 to get the church file from the registrar of societies registry for purposes of filing its annual returns, it has failed, ignored, and refused to avail the file to the pastor,” reads court papers.

Omari contends that The Registrar of Societies may terminate the church’s registration at any moment, despite the fact that it served its letter dated April 2023 on May 25, 2023, 8 days after the expiry of the 21-day notice envisioned by the Registrar of April 27.

“Appallingly, the Registrar of Societies issued a letter dated April 13 addressed to Pastor Odero unequivocally informing him to file his annual returns from the years 2012 to 2022 despite refusing, failing to make the file available to him for the purposes of filing his annual returns,” he added.

Odero wants the court to order the registrar of societies to avail the church file for filing his annual returns as stipulated in law.

He also wants the court to restrain the state or anyone else from canceling the registration of New Life Prayer Centre and Church pending the hearing and determination of his case.